Farmers are, of course, aware of the general difficulties of grading fruits and vegetables because of the individual variances in the size and shape thereof together with the presence of extraneous unwanted material such as twigs, stems, leaves and similar chaff. The problem is yet more aggravated because of the requisite high production rates in the harvesting and processing of many fruits and vegetables because of the short harvesting period. By way of specific example, ripened prune plums conventionally referred to as "green fruit" are now conventionally shaken from the tree by some form of vibratory shaker so as to drop to the receiving surface of an underlying harvester unit whereon the green fruit are accummulated on a conveyor and delivered to a large box for storage and transportation. The green fruit in the box together with some twigs and stems and leaves dislodged by the shaking operation are then delivered to a processing plant wherein the green fruit is initially distributed in a single layer on a plurality of trays, for example, by mechanism such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,800 issued Oct. 22, 1963, to Alfred W. Gerrans. One such unit is capable of handling green fruit at rates in excess of 30 tons per hour and ultimately delivers a stack of trays, each carrying a single layer of the green fruit, to a tunnel dehydrator wherein the exposure of the fruits to hot moving air over a predetermined period reduces the water content so that the dried prunes emerge preparatory to packaging and delivery to retail outlets. Conventionally, immediately prior to packaging, the dried prunes are graded so that individual retail packages contain different size fruit. However, the harvesting and processing operations have not discriminated against grossly undersized fruit which is considered unacceptable to the retail market, and a large amount of the dried fruit, frequently approximately 20% or more of the total must be discarded. This represents a substantial loss in terms of the labor of harvesting and processing as well as the heat energy expended in the dehydration operation and the extra capital expenditure and equipment maintenance necessary to process fruit having substantially no ultimate value. To indicate the practical significance of the problems, typical dehydration costs alone for a pound of prunes are approximately two cents. Accordingly, if we assume a typical yearly fruit harvest of 450 thousand tons and that 20% thereof is undersized fruit, a simple calculation will indicate that a yearly expenditure of $3,600,000.00 is required for drying of fruits which are subsequently discarded. In addition, the ecological problem of disposal is not of minor significance.